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19 July 2011 early edition/transcript/Part 14
Part 14 JOHN WHITTINGDALE: We now come to the second part of these proceedings. I would like to welcome Missus Rebekah Brooks, until recently chief executive officer of News International, and I would like to thank you for your willingness to come before the Committee. We are very much aware there is an ongoing police investigation which could lead to criminal proceedings and we will bear that in mind. But we also appreciate your statement when you resigned from the company that you wanted to be as helpful as possible to various inquiries that are underway. Could I just start, then: News International issued a statement when you were chief executive in July 2009 saying, "there is not and never has been evidence to support allegations that News of the World journalists have accessed the voicemails of any individuals, that they have instructed private investigators or other third parties to access the voicemails of any individuals, or that there was systemic corporate illegality by News International." Would you accept, now, that that is not correct? REBEKAH BROOKS: Thank you, Mister Chairman. Firstly, just before I answer that question, I would like to add my own personal apologies to the apologies that James and Rupert Murdoch made today. Clearly what happened at the News of the World and certainly when the allegations of voice intercepts- voicemail intercepts of victims of crime is pretty horrific and abhorrent. So I just wanted to reiterate that. I also was very keen to come here and answer questions today. As you know, I was arrested and interviewed by the police a couple of days ago, so I have legal representation here just so I don't impede those criminal proceedings, which you would expect. But I intend to answer everything as openly as I can, and not to use that if at all possible, and I know you've all had a briefing around the same questions. WHITTINGDALE: Well we are grateful for that. So perhaps I can invite you to comment on whether or not you now accept that the statement issued, saying that News of the World journalists had not accessed voicemails or indeed instructed investigators to do so, is actually untrue. REBEKAH: Again, as you have heard in the last few hours, the fact is that since the Sienna Miller civil documents came into our possession at the end of December 2010, that was the first time that we, the senior management of the company at the time, had actually seen some documentary evidence actually relating to a current employee. I think that we acted quickly and decisively then, when we had that information. As you know, it was our evidence that opened up the police inquiry in January 2011. Since then, we have admitted liability on the civil cases and endevoured to settle as many as possible. We have appointed Sir Charles Gray, so that victims of phone hacking, if they feel they want to come directly to us and don't want to incur expensive legal costs, can come directly and be dealt with very swiftly. As you know, the court process is taking its time and those cases are not going to be heard until, I think, January 2012, so the compensation scheme is there in order for people to come forward. So, of course there were mistakes made in the past, but I think and I hope that you will agree, since we saw the evidence at the end of December, that we have acted properly and quickly. Q421 WHITTINGDALE: So until you saw the evidence that was produced in the Sienna Miller case, you continued to believe that the only person in the News of the World who had been implicated in phone hacking was Clive Goodman. REBEKAH: Just the sequence of events. I think 2009 was the first time that all of us—I know some members of the Committee have spent a long time on this story and looking at the whole sequence of events, so I know that you all know it pretty well, but just to reiterate, in 2009, when the Gordon Taylor story appeared in The Guardian, I think that that is when information unravelled, but very, very slowly. We have conducted many internal investigations. I know you have spent a lot of time talking to James and Rupert Murdoch about them, but we had been told by people at the News of the World at the time. They consistently denied any of these allegations in various internal investigations. It was only when we saw the Sienna Miller documentation that we realised the severity of the situation. Just to point out, one of the problems of this case has been our lack of visibility and what was seized at Glenn Mulcaire's home. We have had zero visibility. Part of the drip, drip effect of this is because we only see it during a civil procedure, and then we act on that accordingly. Q422 WHITTINGDALE: But it is now your view, on the basis of that evidence, that certainly you were lied to by senior employees. REBEKAH: Well, I think, unfortunately, because of the criminal procedure, I am not sure that it is possible for me to infer guilt until those criminal proceedings have taken place. WHITTINGDALE: I understand.